CES 2012: Swag-A-Thon Day 1

Looking for swag on a show floor is a little bit like an easter egg hunt; almost everyone else is looking too, so you have to work kind of fast, but you don’t want just any egg. Some eggs are rotten or are the candy eggs with the gooey filling I just can’t stand. Now that I’ve beaten that metaphor do death, let’s see how day 1 went:

Looking for swag on a show floor is a little bit like an easter egg hunt; almost everyone else is looking too, so you have to work kind of fast, but you don’t want just any egg. Some eggs are rotten or are the candy eggs with the gooey filling I just can’t stand. Now that I’ve beaten that metaphor do death, let’s see how day 1 went:

PerfPower is company working to solve multiple issues in the mobile power space; batteries that offer free recycling, mobile chargers and mobile power cells powered by those same batteries, and maybe best of all, a great cord that is a simple 2 in 1 micro USB and Apple connector in one cord that’s really easy to use. They hooked me up with the whole she-bang, and I have to say it compares very favorably with the Enercell portable power cell I’ve been testing, other than it’s really bulky, essentially like having another phone in my pocket. So while it’s not great for carrying around the strip, for bus rides or on a long day away from power, you can easily see a 40% battery refill from one charge.

Road Mice who I’ve been covering for a while, were kind enough to give me one of their Corvette and one of their Ford GT mice and a Lamborghini themed mouse pad. Look for the Ford GT and the mouse pad to be featured in one of our upcoming Twitter #GNGiveawayFriday contests.

I picked up half a dozen thumb drives, including a huge one from the NZXT party as part of their swag bag which was filled with calendars, note pads, hats, light up ice cubes, and a really nice mini flashlight. I also managed to find Canadian flag pins and a pair of headphones from Yurbuds.

The coolest thing though came from Violet which is a small desk tchotchke that works with the Karots! That you can program so when you give it to someone to use with their rabbit, it can have their device speak things, open a chat window with you, or even a specific iTunes playlist. It seems like it might be a fun way to share interactivity online with a physical component. Plus, it’s cute so even if you don’t have a Karots! it still looks fun on a desk.